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I have a little problem. I'm addicted to cookbooks, food writing, recipe collecting, and cooking. I have a lot of recipes waiting for me to try them, and ideas from articles, tv, and restaurants often lead to new dishes. I started losing track of what I've done. So now I'm taking photos and writing about what I've prepared—unless it's terrible in which case I forget it ever happened.

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Monday, August 6, 2012

A couple of times this summer, I’ve mentioned wild Alaskan salmon, and that’s what’s shown here again today. This time, I want to share a little information about why this salmon is such a good choice for sustainability. The Alaska Constitution includes a statement regarding protecting natural resources and specifically that “fish...be utilized, developed, and maintained on the sustained yield principle.” The Alaska Department of Fish and Game manages salmon runs by checking numbers of salmon moving upstream to spawning grounds. Sonar counters and fish wheels are used to count, and aerial surveys are performed as well. When enough salmon have reached the spawning grounds to maintain the population, only then are areas opened for commercial fishing for specified lengths of time. This process has made Alaska a “model of seafood sustainability.” Once again, I was delighted to receive some wild, sockeye salmon from the Copper River/Prince William Sound Marketing Association. This time, the salmon came from Prince William Sound which sits between Cook Inlet and Yakutat Bay on the east side of Kenai Peninsula. This salmon was frozen and vacuum packed before being shipped. The color was the same deep, lovely red, and once thawed, the texture was exactly the same as fresh salmon. I had just read about a salmon dish that I wanted to try in The Elements of Taste, so I was ready to get cooking.

Although it’s from book with some serious ideas about flavor that has several serious, chef-style recipes, this dish is actually very simple to prepare. In the book, it’s made with a rice flake crust. I wasn’t able to locate rice flakes, but I did find quinoa flakes and used those instead. The salmon fillets were brushed with a mix of eggs whisked with flour, and then they were pressed into the quinoa flakes that had been seasoned with salt, pepper, and cayenne. The sauce was a reduction of orange juice, mirin, minced lemongrass, grated fresh ginger, dried hot chiles, and a little sugar. After 30 minutes or so, the sauce became syrupy and fragrant. The salmon was quickly seared, crust side down first and then was plated with a pool of the sauce.

The flavor of the salmon was delicious as always, and the quinoa flake crust gave the surface incredible crunch. It was definitely more crunch than you would get with just flour or even cornmeal. The sauce was fruity, spicy, and aromatic and made for a lovely thing to slide each bite of salmon through on the fork. It was another great meal with this carefully caught and well-managed, sustainable fish.

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comments:

I'm headed to Alaska later this month with the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute. I've done some recipe development for them and now I'm heading up to do some fishing, hiking and learn more about Alaskan seafood and sustainability. Thanks for helping to spread the word about how important this is!

I will only buy and/or eat wild salmon...it's so much more delicious than anything farmed! I love this preparation...simple enough that the salmon really shines but also adding elements that make it more delicious.

Wooo! That looks good! I didn't know quinoa came in flakes too. Have never seen them around here and would love to try this with salmon. Happen to have a lovely piece of salmon in the fridge right now, but hmmmm, what about those flakes